News Archive
April 1, 2015
Engineers will Pioneer the Future of Medicine
Many of tomorrow’s solutions to today’s challenges in medicine will require feats of engineering in addition to biology, chemistry and health sciences. In fact, inventions such as valve prostheses, vascular stents and heart rhythm control systems are examples of how biology and medicine can work together with engineering to improve processes for maintaining health and quality of life. Full Story
March 26, 2015
Two Jacobs School of Engineering Faculty Members Receive NSF Engineering CAREER Award
Two UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering faculty members, Drew Hall, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Christian Metallo, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering have received the NSF Engineering CAREER Award. Full Story
March 10, 2015
Bioengineering Graduate Program at UC San Diego Ranked #2 in Nation according to US News and World Report
The bioengineering graduate program at the University of California, San Diego ranks #2 in the nation. This is one of the new rankings from the 2016 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools guidebook, released today. Full Story
March 2, 2015
Three Jacobs School engineers honored as Sloan Fellows
Three engineers at the University of California, San Diego, are being honored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with Sloan Research Fellowships for 2015. This year’s recipients are computer scientist Shachar Lovett, Padmini Rangamani, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and nanoengineer Andrea Tao.The fellowships seek to boost fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. The two-year awards go to 126 researchers yearly in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field."Their achievements and potential place them among the next generation of scientific leaders in the U.S. and Canada," noted the Foundation in a full-page New York Times advertisement, adding that since 1955, "Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win 43 Nobel Prizes, 16 Fields Medal, 65 National Medals of Science" and numerous other honors. Full Story
February 9, 2015
Engineers Put the 'Squeeze' on Human Stem Cells
After using optical tweezers to squeeze a tiny bead attached to the outside of a human stem cell, researchers now know how mechanical forces can trigger a key signaling pathway in the cells. The squeeze helps to release calcium ions stored inside the cells and opens up channels in the cell membrane that allow the ions to flow into the cells, according to the study led by University of California, San Diego bioengineer Yingxiao Wang. Full Story
February 3, 2015
Two UC San Diego Scientists Receive Stem Cell Technology Grants
The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded two University of California, San Diego researchers almost $3 million in combined funding to pursue new technologies intended to accelerate advances moving stem cell therapies out of the lab and into the clinic. Full Story
December 17, 2014
NSF grant to improve visualization capabilities for the biosciences and geosciences
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is partnering with the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), to expand and enhance visualization capabilities in the bio- and geosciences through a grant from the National Science Foundation. Full Story
December 8, 2014
A Sampler of Exciting Stories from 2014 from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
From robots to rockets and crowdfunding to cybersecurity, 2014 has been a busy year here at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Below is a sample of the highlights of the past 12 months. (Be sure to check the Jacobs School press release archive for 2014, Jacobs School blog, and archive of press clips highlighting Jacobs School projects for a more comprehensive list.) Full Story
November 25, 2014
Bioengineering Study Finds Two-Cell Mouse Embryos Already Talking about Their Future
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that mouse embryos are contemplating their cellular fates in the earliest stages after fertilization when the embryo has only two to four cells, a discovery that could upend the scientific consensus about when embryonic cells begin differentiating into cell types. Full Story
November 24, 2014
Vegetable Oil Ingredient Key to Destroying Gastric Disease Bacteria
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with gastric ulcers and cancer. To combat the infection, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering developed LipoLLA, a therapeutic nanoparticle that contains linolenic acid, a component in vegetable oils. In mice, LipoLLA was safe and more effective against H. pylori infection than standard antibiotic treatments.The results are published online Nov. 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full Story
November 20, 2014
Shu Chien Receives U.C. San Diego Roger Revelle Medal
University of California, San Diego bioengineering professor Shu Chien has received the Roger Revelle Medal from UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla with the citation: “Shu Chien is widely known as an exceptional researcher, instructor, mentor and citizen of the university and his professional community.” Full Story
November 7, 2014
Engineering Graduate Students Named Siebel Scholars
Five engineering graduate students from the University of California, San Diego have been named 2015 Siebel Scholars. Full Story
November 5, 2014
Engineers and physicians propose new approach to single-ventricle heart surgery for infants
A schematic of an industrial ejector pump. This device transfers the energy of flow withhigher pressure to the flow with lower pressure, hence elevating the pressure at the outlet. Based onthe same concept, flow through the SVC can be assisted by flow through the shunt to obtain a higherpressure at the PA without increasing SVC Full Story
October 16, 2014
Nineteen new faculty join the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego
Nineteen new faculty members will join the Jacobs School of Engineering this year, which is growing to meet the intense demand for its engineering education programs. Full Story
October 3, 2014
Biomedical Engineers Win 'People's Choice' Award for Inspiring Video
The National Academy of Engineering named a group of University of California, San Diego bioengineering students as the “People’s Choice” award winner in a video contest celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NAE. The Biomedical Engineering Society at UC San Diego received $5,000 in prize money for their award-winning video titled “The Future is Boundless.” Full Story
October 2, 2014
Diabetes in a Dish
Although type 1 diabetes can be controlled with insulin injections and lifestyle modifications, major advances in treating the disease have not been made in more than two decades and there remain fundamental gaps in what is understood about its causes and how to halt its progression.With a 5-year, $4-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and bioengineers at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, with colleagues at UC Irvine and Washington University in St. Louis hope to change this. Full Story
October 1, 2014
Jacobs School Recruiting for 16 Positions in 2014-15
The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego is recruiting for 16 open faculty positions in the 2014-15 academic year. Currently, four recruitments have been posted—each of which can lead to more than one hire. The positions are focused through cluster hires in robotics, materials and energy, advanced manufacturing, information sciences, engineering and clinical medicine, and more. Full Story
August 29, 2014
Scientists sequence complete genome of E. coli Strain responsible for food poisoning
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have produced the first complete genome sequencing of a strain of E. coli that is a common cause of outbreaks of food poisoning in the United States. Although the E. coli strain EDL933 was first isolated in the 1980s, it gained national attention in 1993 when it was linked to an outbreak of food poisoning from Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in the western United States. Their paper published online Aug. 14 in the journal Genome Announcements reports the full, complete sequence with no gaps. Their analysis includes so-called jumping genes that can move around the same genome, sometimes causing damage to individual genes or enabling antibiotic resistance. Full Story
August 11, 2014
Matrix Stiffness is an Essential Tool in Stem Cell Differentiation
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have proven that when it comes to guiding stem cells into a specific cell type, the stiffness of the extracellular matrix used to culture them really does matter. The research team, led by bioengineering professor Adam Engler, also found that a protein binding the stem cell to the hydrogel is not a factor in the differentiation of the stem cell as previously suggested. The protein layer is merely an adhesive, the team reported Aug. 10 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Materials. Full Story
August 1, 2014
Tumor Suppressor Mutations Alone Don't Explain Deadly Cancer
Although mutations in a gene dubbed “the guardian of the genome” are widely recognized as being associated with more aggressive forms of cancer, physicians and bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found evidence suggesting that the deleterious health effects of the mutated gene may in large part be due to other genetic abnormalities, at least in squamous cell head and neck cancers. The study, published online Aug. 3 in the journal Nature Genetics, shows that high mortality rates among head and neck cancer patients tend to occur only when mutations in the tumor suppressor gene coincide with missing segments of genetic material on the cancer genome’s third chromosome. Full Story